Preferences for sequences of outcomes
Loewenstein and Prelec report that two assumptions of standard intertemporal choice models, impatience and additive separability, fail when choices are framed as explicit sequences; with the sequence highlighted people prefer outcomes that improve over time, and part of the pattern appears to come from a preference for spreading good outcomes evenly. Psychological Review 100(1), 91-108, 1993.
Loewenstein and Prelec report that two assumptions of standard intertemporal choice models, impatience and additive separability, fail when choices are framed as explicit sequences; with the sequence highlighted people prefer outcomes that improve over time, and part of the pattern appears to come from a preference for spreading good outcomes evenly. Psychological Review 100(1), 91-108, 1993.
Written from the abstract, 2026-11-05.
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Loewenstein, G., & Prelec, D. (1993). Preferences for sequences of outcomes. Psychological Review, 100(1), 91-108. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.100.1.91 https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.100.1.91